Breakfast with ... Ivan Capelli

They say you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full, but Eric Silbermann risks the wrath of Mrs Manners by having breakfast with a pot-pourri of paddock people.

Ivan Capelli competed in 98 Grands Prix during the late Eighties and early Nineties. Career highlights came with the beautiful 1988 Leyton House car designed by a young up and coming Adrian Newey. A year with Ferrari was a disaster and an attempt to resurrect his career at Jordan never really got off the ground. But Ivan was always one of the most popular guys in the paddock and he’s still here today, wearing a couple of hats, as a TV commentator and, more recently as one of the main movers behind attempts to keep Monza on the F1 calendar.

When you were a little boy and wanted to be a racing driver, did you ever think you’d be talking to politicians, trying to save your home grand prix?

No, not really. I came here for the first time in 1977, with my father. He was a cameraman and I was at the first chicane with him, very close to the guardrail, because he was there filming. I was next to him, a little boy listening to the engine noise and taking in the smell of the tyres. Even then, I was just a football fan, but that experience meant something happened, also because my father was so passionate about motorsport. From there started my experience in go-karts in 1978 and from then on, I never stopped.

We’ll go back to that, but today here you are in a blazer with the Monza track badge on: I’ve never seen you look so smart. What can you tell us as of today about the future of this race?

We found a very critical economic situation here one year ago and this means we are facing a challenge which is like starting a race with the handbrake on. If you have to start again with a new calendar and a new project, obviously you need money. But we don’t have the money because of problems created three or four years ago, so it’s very critical. I think with the CSAI (the Italian motor sport association) management and the AC Milan (Automobile Club of Milan) involved we had the opportunity to show we are focussed on sorting out all the problems, from the major one which is obviously the contract with Bernie Ecclestone to the little problems, such as improving facilities for the media. We are looking at everything. What is the situation now with Bernie? We are still discussing in a positive way and Bernie is doing his job. He’s very clever and experienced at that. We have to create the opportunity including the politicians to play like a team with one aim, one objective. That’s the difficulty in Italy, with these politicians involved, everyone wants to use it as his own stage, I’m important.

It’s like an Italian opera. But at the end of the day is it a case of the Italian government paying for this race? 

Partly. The government must be involved, but not for the full amount. We have a business plan: there is money coming from the region here, the ACI (Automobile Club of Italy) is doing its part and the last part we are missing is what might come from Rome.

Does Bernie see the historical importance of this race? Is he prepared to make any concession for that?

To a very small extent, yes. It’s a very small percentage. At the end of the day, I can understand him, because if he is creating a situation where Monza is paying a lot less compared to others, then other circuits can start to complain, asking why Monza has this treatment while they don’t.

But you could say Ferrari is given more money from Bernie for historical reasons, so why not give Monza a discount on the same grounds?

It’s what we are trying to find, a compromise of sorts.

How did you get involved in this project?

Two years ago, I came to Monza for a historic event,  a very important race for historic cars and in the past there’d be a hundred cars and a big crowd. But two years ago there were only 30 cars in the paddock and hardly any spectators. We began to understand the problems here and I was asked to join the Automobile Club of Milan and help. There was an election and I found myself with 2449 votes and I was the president of the AC of Milan!

It was an easier life being a driver…

Absolutely. I realise now how good is a driver’s life. Today, a driver arrives at the circuit like a rock star with everything organised perfectly around you and you just get on with the driving.  Now, I get paid six thousand Euros a year for this job! Hahahahahahaha! We are a public company so the salary is an honorary thing.